Del Mar OKs new hotel fee to help marketing effort

DEL MAR  Del Mar’s hotels will impose a 1 percent room rate fee on guests beginning in October to fund marketing of the city as a tourist destination.

That will be in addition to the city’s transient occupancy tax, or TOT, a per-night tax on tourists who stay in hotels for fewer than 30 days. The TOT is currently 11.5 percent of the nightly room rate. The additional 1 percent per night makes the total fees 12.5 percent.

Del Mar’s six hotels, consisting of 356 total rooms, requested the City Council establish the Tourism Business Improvement District for five years. The council approved it on a 4-0 vote Monday. More than 50 cities in California have formed this type of marketing effort.

The new fee is expected to raise $130,000 annually, some of which will also go to downtown streetscape improvements and Del Mar Village Association promotional events.

According to a June budget update, the city is projecting the 11.5 percent TOT to total $1.49 million for fiscal year 2010-11, $130,000 less than originally budgeted. The board for the new improvement district will be officially established Oct. 1.